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12 Sep 2013

Alice Ripley

Photo by Dirty Sugar Photography

What theatre kid doesn't dream of having a career like Tony Award winner Alice Ripley's?

Understudy for the role of Mrs. Walker in The Who's Tommy… replacement Fantine in the original run of Les Misérables… original Broadway Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard… rose to stardom in Side Show…and earned the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical in the Pulitzer and Tony-winning Next to Normal.

But there was a time when Ripley was just another talented teen hoping to get her foot on the bottom rung of the showbiz ladder by picking the right college. Who knows what combination of the right program, the right professors and the right roles will send one on a trajectory to greatness?

Knowing that a new crop of students is beginning their college searches this month, PlaybillEDU is asking Broadway personalities to share their experiences about how they started on the road to where they are today.

PlaybillEDU visited Ripley at 54 Below nightclub, where she was honing her new act, and asked her where she went to college, how she chose her schools, what financial challenges she faced and what she got out of the programs.

Visit the PlaybillEDU pages for the two schools Alice Ripley attended; or, log in, tell PlaybillEDU your particulars and let us find the ideal program for you: